1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of hologram production and, more particularly, to wide field-of-view hologram production.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous devices and techniques have been disclosed for producing and displaying various types of holograms including one-step techniques, updateable techniques, techniques relying on fringe pattern calculation, and traditional object/reference beam interference techniques. Moreover, the subject matter of the scenes displayed in such holograms varies from simple demonstration scenes, to artistic renderings, to portraits, to scenes of complex devices or spaces, and beyond.
For many applications of holography, it is desirable that the hologram be able to display as large a field-of-view as possible. For example, a hologram that is designed to display an image of terrain can be placed on a horizontal surface (e.g., a table top) for viewing by multiple individuals. Ideally, the hologram would produce an image with a 180° field-of-view. Thus, a viewer would still be able to see the hologram when they are looking at the edge of the horizontal surface.
Current reflection and transmission holograms produced by state-of-the-art pulsed laser and CW laser devices and techniques typically have a field-of-view limited in part by the complexity of the Fourier transform optics employed by the hologram recorders. For example, many devices developed by Zebra Imaging, Inc. (the assignee of the present application) produce holograms with an approximately 97° field-of-view. Although this is a fairly wide field-of-view in comparison with most holographic displays, it is still not optimal for many display applications, particularly disk format holograms where the reference beam is normal to the hologram surface and the hologram is designed to be viewed on a horizontal surface (e.g., a table top).
Accordingly, it is desirable to have improved systems and methods for producing and displaying wide field-of-view holograms to overcome the above-identified deficiencies in the prior art.